The nasty brawl at Lakeside shopping centre on Friday afternoon wasn’t a good start to the festive season.

Two women had an unknown liquid substance thrown in their faces, during a fight which escalated into McDonald’s where memebers of staff were assaulted while trying to break up the fracas.

Two boys, aged 16 and 17, were later arrested.

This all happened on a busy, lively afternoon which had seen the centre launch its ice rink feature. 

We now have very The whole business startled shoppers and families and then led to a dispersal order being put in place the next day…when the Christmas tree was officially launched. Unfortunate timing.

The order allowed the authorities to break up big groups of youngsters. Staff at Lakeside and the police can be commended for dealing with this matter swiftly and professionally. And those staff in McDonald’s deserve a special mention as they went above and beyond.

It’ll now be interesting to see whether Lakeside bosses will be tempted to make these dispersal orders a more regular thing.

Police said this was an isolated incident and, of course, there’s no need to over react. But on the same token shoppers and families can feel intimidated by too many large crowds of youths, so breaking up these groups may work to the centre’s advantage.